Interview with Richard Palmisano, author of Meeting Place of the Dead

Halloween is much more than tricks or treats, it is also All Hallows Eve, where the souls of the dead walk among us. Richard Palmisano, author of Meeting Place of the Dead knows however that it's not just All Hallows Eve when ghosts appear amongst us...

How did you come up with the idea for this work?

Richard:My team and I were presenting some of our work to the Halton Hills Historical Society when we were approached by a resident regarding a Google Street View photograph of her property. The photo showed the front of her house with two semi transparent figures in period clothing on the front porch. She wanted to know if we were interested in looking into the photo and investigating the property. We sure did.

Tell us a bit about the book?

Richard: The place was ancient by Canadian standards and loaded with history. As we started to dig deeper into the many mysteries of this property three major situations came to the surface. The first was how everyone felt the friendliness and welcoming of the place. Call me a cynic or maybe I have just been doing ghost investigations for too long but this was a giant red flag. It has been my experience on many occasions that these feelings about a place can normally be a trap. The second was that this place was once a church and in its later years there was abuse that took place there. This could be seen as a desecration of the building and may now be attractive to negative energies.

The third was a visiting medium while working the property had great concerns about little entities she encountered which she described as trying to look like children.

We were going to be in for an interesting ride. It would eventually lead me to do something I have never done before, shut down an investigation for our personal safety.

How did you come up with the title?

Richard: During our investigations we found that there were many spirits present. It seemed like a drop in centre at times with many coming and going. Many who seemed to have ties to the place, but then there were others who didn’t seem to have anything to do with the house or property at all. It was one very specific electronic voice phenomena (EVP) that was recorded in the building that lead me to the title of the book.

We had just come inside when the voice of a young male stated “Miriam, they’re all alive.”This lead me to believe they were expecting someone other than the living to arrive for a visit. Thus the title: Meeting Place of the Dead.

What is the hardest part of writing your book?

Richard: These types of books are very labor intensive. Each visit to the location is an investigation where the team and I record our own experiences, photos, video and audio recordings. All of this must be analyzed and recorded in an investigative report by each investigator. I sort through all these reports and use them to build a story. Each visit can open up further mysteries which we then plan to resolve on a subsequent visit. When dealing with history not all mysteries can be solved as records can be lost, participants and witnesses move away or die and in a lot of cases records were just not kept. There is also another hurdle which I call the small town phenomena; this is where people who live in small towns never divulge their secrets no matter how long ago an event may have occurred.

What is your next project?

Richard: I am very excited however reluctant about jumping into Meeting Place of the Dead book 2. The client requested us back and the team persuaded me, so we are heading back to see what new discoveries that can be made. We have no idea what might be in store for us. As we have already suffered physical attacks, threats and visits to our private residences by some of the residing entities. What I have seen so far on our return is that book 2 is going to make you want to sleep with the lights on.

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Richard Palmisano has investigated the paranormal for most of his life. He is by trade a security specialist and criminal investigator with 21 years in the field. He has written three previous books, including Ghosts and Journeys into the Unknown. He lives in Toronto.

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We acknowledge the support of the Canada Council for the Arts and the Ontario Arts Council for our publishing program. We also acknowledge the financial support of the Government of Canada through the Canada Book Fund and Livres Canada Books, and the Government of Ontario through the Ontario Book Publishing Tax Credit and the Ontario Media Development Corporation.